The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1887-04-20


to Hungry Folks at Remarkably Cheap
Rates, But it Requires Curious Expe-
dients to Manage the business.
New York, April 21.-"Walk right in,
old man, we've got something for you
1t was tottering chap of seventy or so
who was thus hailed, and the speaker
stood in the open doorway of a Bowery
restaurant. A considerable share of the
traffic in this famous street, good and
bad, is done by portal solicitation, from
the clothing store to the dime museum;
but this time the place was cheap eating
house, and l wondered at it. The old
man entered, and followed him in.
"What you want" said the waiter who
had half-seriously and half-jocosely en-
ticed the customer in, lis Hamburger
steak"
"Can l eat it9n was the nervous query.
"Can kitten lap milk?o was the vocif-
erous reponse.
We were in locally noted establish
ment-one worth description. In war
times, keen and thrifty Switzer, whose
first name was John, opened little place
on the Bowery for the sale Of pork and
beans; and by giving more beans for
less money than anybody else he ac-
quired reputation, money and the nick
name of Pork -beans-J Ohm" Two
or three years after the war, the demand
for beans having subsidized, John changed
his location and his bill of fare; and pub
lie opinion, or whatever it may be called,
change his nickname. He moved few
blocks up the Bowery and devoted his
entire attention to broiling beefsteaks at
low rates for hungry folks. John
thought steady diet of beefsteak was
good enough for anybody, and he didn't
pretend to cook anything else, except the
few vegetables that went with the meat.
Therefore, Forgetting and putting alto
gether aside the bean period and its &C
compartments, the Bowery fastened upon
the steak broiler the name of Beefsteak
John, and by that name has the Swiss
been known ever since.
In the lapse of years Beefsteak John
has increased his capital and enlarged his
dining room, and, in Difference to the
clamorous appetites of his patrons, he
has revised and improved hisbill of fare,
giving it some suggestion of vaiety, and
trying to suit all palates that are not
pampered beyond the bounds of reason.
Like all men of originality, he has many
imitators, and one can now find half
score of cheap restaurants in New York
displaying the sign "Beefsteak Johns"
The original sho is capable of seat
ing about 200 persons. Plain tables
are in rows along the sides, and long
one runs through the centre. No table,
cloths are used, because the B0wery does
not demand the luxuries of life, and it
is much easier to keep the wood clean
| than to educate the customers to avoid
! splitting the soup. For equally obvious
reasons John refrains from supplying his
patrons with napkins, and he places no
| temptation in the shape of silver in the
way of the Bowery Coat sleeves and
plain iron cutlery are good enough enc
much cheaper The fare is plain ans
not too variegated and it is the same
every day, as PERM mont painted signs on
the walls sufficiently attest. A regular
dinner of soup, meat, vegetables bread
sneciallv ordered cost ten cents a plate.
and i,S' oysters from ten to twenty cents.
or.ori;nr 10 tho stvle of coolxinS
/ There Il one inviolate heefsteak rule
here Everv steak ID cooked with onions.
I Appeal and protest make no difference.
4 The steak must and shall be fried with
onions. and a little wad of that odorifer-
1 ous veeetahle hot and greasy. has to he
served on the nlate with the niece of
meat aSteak AND onionsr Is the chief
/ article sold here and II can't he varied to
steak with an onion of onions.n New
ortbelsss a naodifcation verv ramarlrable
has haan nade hv ReefstealS .Tohn in his
hnSiness md thai was What The old mans
attention was called To Inv the nuller-in
/ 4 s.aaL ,hat co., ha cold Of profit for
ta,, cents hos so,na naeul;ar;ties Of ;ts
W., that dist;r@,,;sb 4 from a DeImonico
tarda IL; a,J 90 Iob,,s natrons gat
| aIono, in rears thew ore No LONGER able 10
chew M, The leatherv food AZ an entire
/ Steak af Won The limited size known in
sb;s rasta,ra,t cannot ,yall he swallowed
,rhoia H. s,,sto,oars had n dro,, off On
aftor ,a,,ntf,s-. 90 thov ,ro,y tootbless
r. s,,,,,lit. lonr-feit yant Reefstes,s
| fohr iataI, intro3nced The Uamhnrger
staal M, 10 q formation Of cbonned
h soaA ,,rassod into The shane of eal;d
stsaI and Fried Known The dental dam
o@a dona IN davs zone hv or feared tn
dav NAV he est;mafed from .Iobn's state
mani tbat no cells and his cuests devour
a0ll nonnds of HAMBURG steak daily. and
b GS IA ,ol tcafstesk trada has fallen
nT o LII, ua foods aho,'t eo1 r,arsans
~. ~ 49, ,srn., a,oy
'al Ait hoy J,' tha rIoce Il r,n ON cbean
,,,a,, a,,d l. frapoa,entad NV neonla who
/ Pioh oiiN 20 AAS1NSfAeSN ~ f-oPAo